Friends (left to right) Ellie Diercksmeier of Clarkdale, Ariz., Patty Petek of Brookfield, Renny Lea of Fish Creek and Tina Thommesen of Madison have been lifelong friends, and all attended a Beatles concert in 1964. They call themselves the Fab Four.

On June 18, 1942, a boy named James Paul McCartney was born in Liverpool, England. He'd grow up and meet other chaps — John Lennon, George Harrison, Ringo Starr — and together as the Beatles, they'd impact the lives of countless millions around the world, and of people living in Milwaukee, during the '60s and the decades that followed.

McCartney has been active ever since, in Wings, as a solo artist and on the road. On Tuesday, McCartney will take the stage at a sold-out Miller Park for his first Milwaukee concert since 2005, to perform in front of about 40,000 spectators. | July 12, 2013»Read Full Article(2)

Hearing a piece of the standard orchestral repertoire, such as one of the Brahms symphonies, is a matter of reconnecting with things in the work that are familiar and taking in the interpretive details brought to it by the conductor and players, the acoustic of the concert hall, and the energy brought to the performance by a live audience. | Nov. 15, 2013»Read Full Article

Spend one summer in Milwaukee and you'll soon learn the city is no stranger to ethnic cultural festivals. Come November, the Holiday Folk Fair at State Fair Park may be considered the grand culmination of them all, bringing more than 50 ethnic communities under one roof.

The three-day folk fair, which takes place Nov. 22 through 24, is separated into cultural exhibits, a marketplace and entertainment stages so attendees can become acquainted with Arab, French, Greek, Mexican, Serbian, Thai and Ugandan heritages — and many more. More than 50,000 people are expected to attend. | Nov. 15, 2013»Read Full Article

Then living in Cleveland, Suzan Fete was a young actor "who had no desire to be anything else" when theater teacher Tom Fulton suggested she consider directing. But it wasn't until Fete moved to Milwaukee and began acting at Mark Bucher's Boulevard Ensemble Theatre that the seed Fulton had planted began to sprout.

It was 1990, and Bucher had chosen William Luce's "The Belle of Amherst" for the 1991-'92 season. Boldly, Fete approached Bucher and asked if she could direct it. "God bless him," Fete said during a recent phone interview. "He said yes." | Nov. 15, 2013»Read Full Article

If you know Kid Millions, the man behind Dope Folks Records, then you know his music knowledge, especially in deep underground hip hop, is pretty vast. And lucky for us, he shares that knowledge through mixes he makes. This time, he focused on Chicago hip hop from 1988-1998, hence the title of the mix "88-98 Chicago Mix". While many of the titles below may not be very familiar or popular, it doesn't diminish how dope all these cuts are. | Nov. 15, 2013»Read Full Blog Post

Rock solid history

The history of Wisconsin has a solid foundation in the Niagara Escarpment, that limestone ledge under our feet that stretches from northeastern Illinois and southeastern Wisconsin, through Door County, over into Canada and around to New York state, leaving cliffs of limestone and the falls for which it gets its name. Joanne Kluessendorf, director of the Weis Earth Science Museum of the University of Wisconsin-Fox Valley, and Donald Mikulic, senior paleontologist from the Illinois State Geological Survey, will give the 2013 Edward Wilkommen GeoFocus Lecture on the escarpment and what it means to us at 6 p.m. Thursday at the American Geographical Society Library. It is on the third floor in the east wing of UWM's Golda Meir Library, 2311 E. Hartford Ave. Their lecture — "The Ledge, the Lake, and the Limestone" — looks at our development as a state with regards to the bedrock below us. It is free and the public is welcome. There will be a reception beforehand at 5:30 p.m. | Nov. 15, 2013»Read Full Article

KJ Sanchez, who directed "The Diary of Anne Frank" last season, has returned to the Milwaukee Repertory Theater to work with a veteran cast on Michael Frayn's farce "Noises Off," which opens Friday. Could the sober "Anne Frank" story and frantically comic "Noises Off" have anything in common?

"The chemistry of the company has to be excellent," Sanchez said. "The director needs to nurture that chemistry. | Nov. 15, 2013»Read Full Article

How sweet is this? When the Skylight Music Theatre went looking for a quality performer to sing the role of Inspector Javert in the musical "Les Misérables," it found one in Muskego.

That's where Andrew Varela gets his mail, anyway. But he's not always home. Sometimes he's out on the road for a few years, singing a leading role in the national touring company of a big musical — like "Les Misérables." | Nov. 15, 2013»Read Full Article

The Journal Sentinel began a tradition six years ago by offering readers the gift of art on Christmas Day. In the space normally reserved for the top news of the day, we present readers with a work of art by a Wisconsin artist.

Forever Lazy, a Wisconsin-based company that sells one-piece pajamas, is summoning sleepwear enthusiasts in Milwaukee Saturday in an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for "the largest gathering of people wearing one-piece pajamas," according to a news release.

The event needs more than 700 participants to break the record, and will start at 1 p.m. at N. 10th St. and W. Juneau Ave. Tickets are $20, include a grown-up onesie, and will benefit Variety-the Children's Charity of Wisconsin. | Nov. 15, 2013»Read Full Article

"Stay: A History of Suicide and the Philosophies Against It," By Jennifer Michael Hecht. Yale University Press. 280 pages. $26.

In her impassioned, compelling book "Stay: A History of Suicide and the Philosophies Against It,"Jennifer Michael Hecht makes the sustained argument she wishes she could have made to two friends who committed suicide. Her book is not so much the panacea to reach for during a dark night of the soul as it is the book that would help a person, especially a nonreligious person, to have read before that dark night began.

Hecht is addressing despair suicides — people troubled by depression and feelings of worthlessness — rather than terminal-illness suicides, though she notes those aren't necessarily completely distinct categories: "Ailing people may also be depressed and may struggle with the worry of being a burden, and in this sense the message of this book might be of use to them as well." | Nov. 15, 2013»Read Full Article(2)

Kevin Stalheim is hearing voices, and they're telling him to program a Pulitzer Prize-winning piece of music.

Stalheim, artistic director of Present Music, has added a vocal arm to the group's instrumental performing capabilities by way of an eight-voice choir, inspired in part by the desire to perform part of Caroline Shaw's "Partita for 8 Voices" on the upcoming Thanksgiving concert Nov. 24 at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist. | Nov. 15, 2013»Read Full Article

As the centerpiece of a fundraising event for the center, director Reva Fox will stage "The Trial of FDR," Robert Krakow's celestial courtroom play, which puts President Franklin D. Roosevelt on trial for crimes against humanity in connection with the incident of the MS St. Louis. | Nov. 15, 2013»Read Full Article

Going to Wine and Dine Wisconsin this weekend? I'll be there myself Saturday from 3:30 to 5 p.m. manning the Best of Brew City and Fresh booth. Stop on by if you want to talk music. I just ask that if you're mad at me for writing a negative review that you please refrain from tossing a glass of wine in my face. (Would be such a sad waste of good wine.)

And are you still on the fence about going? Watch the On Tap This Weekend video below for a promo code that'll get you in at a discount. | Nov. 15, 2013»Read Full Blog Post

Two Milwaukee artists -- David Robbins and Paul Druecke -- will be among the 100 or so artists in the 2014 Whitney Biennial, the only exhibit in the country to make a serious attempt at showcasing the best contemporary art being made in the U.S.

The sprawling, museum-filling exhibit is always a daunting task, and in an effort to get it right the Whitney Museum of American Art announced nearly a year ago that it would experiment with its curatorial strategy by enlisting three curators who work outside of New York and the art world's usual power structures. | Nov. 15, 2013»Read Full Blog Post(1)

Rushing Waters trout appears on menus in Milwaukee, Chicago and beyond; now the Palmyra trout farm is serving its fish in its own restaurant.

Part of a large expansion, the Trout House restaurant recently opened for lunch and dinner on Fridays and Saturdays and brunch on Sundays, and for private parties the rest of the week. | Nov. 15, 2013»Read Full Blog Post

When the amazing David Gaines mimed his way through a Theatre Gigante show four years ago, he managed to play every character in Akira Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai," as a cowed gaggle of villagers learns to stand up and fight.

This time around, Gaines takes us to the circus, where his antic, irrepressible spirit once again instills courage in the meek and strikes a blow against regimentation. | Nov. 15, 2013»Read Full Article

So today I came across an Onion headline I wish was a gag: "The Onion and A.V. Club ending print publication next month." It triggered distant memories of guffawing through its pages while doing laundry in college, and not too distant memories flipping through last week's issue. Milwaukee, none too far from Madison, where the Onion was born 25 years ago, was one of only three cities that still had a print edition. That stops Dec. 12.

What also ends Dec. 12, and this is the truly depressing news, is AV Club Milwaukee, the always engaging, consistently clever, frequently hilarious, often thought-provoking local entertainment guide, led by superstar editor Matt Wild. I've honestly only spoken to Matt a couple of times, so I assure you personal bias is not at play when I write that Matt is one of the greatest writers in this city. When I'm not laughing at his cleverness and impressed by his seemingly effortless phrasing, I find myself feeling undeniably jealous of his talents. (I can be petty that way). | Nov. 15, 2013»Read Full Blog Post